...The Tigers lost to the Dragons, 6-1. They have now lost 3 games in a row.

...The Tigers scored their lone run in the first inning: a double by Matt Murton led off with a double, moved to third on a single by Keiichi Hirano, and came around to score on a sac fly by Takashi Toritani. After that sac fly, the offense could must only two more hits. They were also doubled up three times in the game.

One of the double plays came in the top of the 8th with Shunsuke Fujikawa at first (pinch-runner for Kodai Sakurai) and Ryo Asai (pinch-hitter for Tsuyoshi Shimoyanagi) up to bat. Asai got the bunt sign and popped the ball up into the air. Junki Ito caught the ball and quickly threw over to first to complete the double play.

...Shimoyanagi started the game and pitched well enough for a win, holding the Dragons to just 1 run over 7 innings of work. The lone run he allowed was a lead-off homer to Kazuhiro Wada in the 2nd inning. Other than that, Shimoyanagi only allowed two runners to touch second base: Masaaki Koike in the 5th and Wada in the 7th.

...Tomoyuki Kubota was the losing pitcher on record. He allowed 5 runs (1 earned) over 0.2 innings of work.

Final line: 0.2 IP, 8 BF, 31 NP, 4 H, 0 SO, 1 BB, 5 R, 1 ER.

How's those run score? After retiring the first two batters of the 8th, Kubota gave up two consecutive singles to Dionys Cesar and Masahiko Morino. Tony Blanco followed with an RBI single to right that put runners on first and third. A walk to Wada loaded the bases. A fielding error by Hirano (2B) on a grounder by Koike allowed two runs to score and put runners on first and third. Motonobu Tanishige capped things off with a bases clearing double to right that gave the Tigers a 6-1.